In My Father's House Are Many Rooms
by PervyMonk
Summary: After the death of the Sole Survivor, someone has to look after Shaun. Preston Garvey seems to be the only one willing to take on the responsibility of his care. Written for the Fallout Kink Meme


Preston knows that life isn't fair, and the Commonwealth even less so. Still, he wants to scream his rage to the blue skies, wants to scream 'it isn't fair' until his lungs give out. He wants to pound his fists into the ground until his knuckles bleed, wants to sob over the wood Sturges scavenged for a cross until it rots away. Instead, he keeps his face stoic as he watches Deacon read from an ancient bible and both men try not to cry.

Shaun is sobbing enough for everyone in attendance. Preston keeps his hands on the boy's shoulders, trying to be still as the boy shakes. He needs to be the rock that Shaun's waves of grief could crash against.

" _You're like a rock, Preston,"_ she'd told him. " _I may be the General of the Minutemen, but only because you made me so. We'd be nothing without your foundation."_

Preston looks up into the sky to keep the tears welling up in his eyes from falling down his cheeks. It seems like a cruel joke that the sun shines so brightly on such a day. He stares into the light of the sun until he can't stand anymore, and focuses his attention back on the gathering.

Back on the funeral.

Everyone she'd met since waking up is in attendance. Piper holds on to Curie as they both cry. Piper's face is as red as her coat, and Curie sobs as though she's never experienced grief before. Preston can't imagine what it must be like to be newly human-or as close to it as Nora could make Curie. Nick sighs, standing next to the cross Sturges had made, and the one metal hand he rests against it contrasts sharply with the wood.

'Nora Walker' the cross reads. 'Beloved mother and friend.' The cross next to hers looks similar, only it stands for 'Nate Walker'. Preston remembers helping her pull her dead husband from that frozen vault, helping her dig a grave to bury him. He'd thought she'd want to be laid to rest next to him-Preston knew she'd never stopped loving him.

Deacon's voice doesn't shake as he reads, but Preston had gotten good at reading his expression despite his sunglasses. Preston is sure that after the ceremony, Deacon will disappear for a while. What he is less sure of is if Deacon will come back without Nora to draw him back. Cait is nowhere to be seen, though Preston can hear the breaking of wood and the slamming of objects punctuating Deacon's sermon. He'd gone to check on her before the ceremony only to find her house half destroyed and knuckles bloody.

Hancock sways uneasily on his feet, eyes unfocused as though he can hardly believe what he's seeing. Preston sees him inhale a slight hit of Jet, but doesn't say anything. The ghoul's eyes water and his face breaks into an expression of grief. Codsworth floats as if he doesn't know what to do with himself, sighing 'oh, Mum,' to himself. Dogmeat lays next to Shaun's feet and the dog's howling hurts Preston almost as much as Shaun's sobbing.

Strong stand apart from the rest of his group with his arms crossed, looking more displeased than anything else, and Preston grits his teeth as he hears the mutant mutter, "Silly, stupid human. Why you have to be so weak?"

Macready sniffles, his hat clenched in his hand and his eyes rimmed with red. Preston never got along with the merc, but no one could deny how much Nora had meant to him. She'd often call him 'her best friend', and they seemed almost inseparable. _If she'd been traveling with him instead, she might have lived,_ Preston thinks vindictively, and hates himself just a bit more for it.

The last person that Preston's eyes fall on is Danse. The man's eyes watch the grave hollowly, and he seems more fragile out of his power armor. Preston can see that he hadn't been able to get all of the blood washed off of his hands. _Good,_ Preston thinks viciously, and his eyes dart back and forth between Danse and Nora's cross almost shamefully. She'd been out with Danse when it had happened. She and Danse had been coming back with some much needed salvage for Sanctuary, wearing their power armor to make carrying it easier. She should have been protected by the armor.

They'd been less than a mile out when the vertibird hit. The minigun had torn her armor to shreds with a bitterness and cruelty that Preston had always known the Brotherhood was capable of.

Sturges had been the only one thinking on his feet. He'd loaded up a missile launcher and had taken out the vertibird, but it had been too late. Preston had found Danse clutching her to his chest, screaming at her to wake up, and blood had poured from the ruined armor over Danse down into the wasteland dirt below.

Danse looks like a dead man standing there, his eyes trying to burn away Nora's cross. Preston wonders, not for the first time, if he'd had more in common with the former Paladin through a shared love of Nora.

"' _Let not your hearts be troubled. Believe in God; believe also in me. In my Father's house are many rooms. If it were not so, would I have told you that I go to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and will take you to myself, that where I am you may be also. And you know the way to where I am going,"_ Deacon reads. Preston is amazed that he managed to scavenge a Bible so quickly for the service. Preston had heard the stories in it second hand, but Nora had been fond of the book.

Eventually, the service ends, and Preston picks up a shovel. He watches Danse and Macready do the same. Shaun reaches for one, and something breaks in Preston's chest.

"It's okay, Shaun," he says gently. "We have it handled."

"But I want-" he says, before crying again. Sturges places a gentle hand on the boy's shoulder, and leads him away. The three men work in silence, filling up the grave as the sun makes a slow crawl across the sky.

God, it had just been this morning that Nora had still been alive.

Once the grave is filled, Macready throws his shovel down on the ground. He glares at Danse before storming off, but doesn't say anything-he doesn't need to. He'd screamed his thoughts at Danse before the ceremony.

" _You killed her! You killed her, you son of a bitch! It should have been you!"_ echoes in Preston's mind. If it hadn't been for Nick, Preston isn't sure he'd been able to keep Macready from killing Danse.

"He's right," Danse says, his voice hoarse and raw with pain. "If she'd just done what Maxson had asked, she'd still be alive. Their target was me."

"And yet you escaped unharmed," Preston says, unable to keep the bitterness out of his voice.

"She pushed me away," Danse says, his voice small. "She heard the veritbird and pushed me into cover. There-there was a spilt second before the minigun started firing and-" Danse closes his eyes, and Preston feels sympathy for the man underneath all of his bitter grief.

"Macready is right," he says. "It should have been me."

Preston watches Danse walk away, a stone hanging heavily in his belly.


End file.
